Posters / Publication / object(ive)s
Social Design Course, Refugees International Exhibition
Curators: Prof Johan Vandebosch, Prof Ann Bessemans (PXL-MAD), Prof Katerina Antonaki (TEI of Athens),
Prof Ewa Satalecka (PJATK).
The visual identity of the Social Design Course was made by Marta Myszewska.
The objective of this course is to provide a platform of communication to different audiences, and highlight how design influences a social campaign and visual communication on a national level. The artworks done by the participants became a part of international exhibition (Belgium, Greece, Poland, UK). The guests had a chance to take brochures with the works published as well as postcards. The future step is development of a web-based platform to continue the communication.
object(ive)s
Curator: Prof Katerina Antonaki (TEI of Athens)
Brief
During a four-day workshop the participants are asked to collect objects from the city and/or home and ‘connect’ them to an issue related to the refugees (history of immigration, notion of dislocation, un-rooting, formation of new communities, mobility, real or imaginative, threaten of survival, causes of immigration, ethical issues, solutions, food culture, personal feelings, design questions etc.) After choosing the object they will be asked to write a short text explaining why they chose this certain object. Following that they will photoshoot the objects in the classroom. Filtering the multilayering social issues, leading to connections with ‘real’ objects is the challenge. The posters are going to become a collaborative international exhibition, held in four countries-participants and published in a dedicated brochure.
While doing the research on media presence of refugee topics, I came across a publication by the global organisation "Save The Children" and read stories of Syrian children who became refugees in Europe. Therefore, I decided to focus on childhood, losses, hopes and regrets of the smallest victims of the recent humanitarian crisis. The object I found was a lost and dirty ball (possibly broken) in the playground, which reminded me of the story by Ali from the aforementioned publication. Ali loves football and school. So my decision was to take his direct quotation that describes the emotions I wanted to evoke better than any reflections written by me. The background color is also symbolic, as it is associated with innocence, hope, and new beginnings.
